Rolling Stone recently ran a story about an Oklahoma hospital that was supposedly overwhelmed with ivermectin overdoses. Shortly thereafter, the hospital issued a statement completely rebuking the claims made in the Rolling Stone story.
Rolling Stone ran a story in which they claimed that a hospital in Oklahoma was so overwhelmed with ivermectin overdoses that they were unable to treat patients for gunshot wounds. “The rise in people using ivermectin, an anti-parasitic drug usually reserved for deworming horses or livestock, as a treatment or preventative for Covid-19 has emergency rooms “so backed up that gunshot victims were having hard times getting” access to health facilities, an emergency room doctor in Oklahoma said.
This week, Dr. Jason McElyea told KFOR the overdoses are causing backlogs in rural hospitals, leaving both beds and ambulance services scarce,” wrote Rolling Stone’s Peter Wade.
Shortly afterwards, the Northeastern Health System – Sequoyah issued a statement completely rebuking the Rolling Stone article. In the statement, it was revealed that the doctor quoted in the Rolling Stone story was not even employed with NHS Sequoyah, had not worked at the location in months, and had not treated any patients related to ivermectin. The statement further debunks the Rolling Stone piece by stating that no patients have been turned away and that no ivermectin overdoses had occurred.
Although Dr. Jason McElyea is not an employee of NHS Sequoyah, he is affiliated with a medical staffing group that provides coverage for our emergency room.
With that said, Dr. McElyea has not worked at our Sallisaw location in over 2 months.
NHS Sequoyah has not treated any patients due to complications related to taking ivermectin. This includes not treating any patients for ivermectin overdose.
All patients who have visited our emergency room have received medical attention as appropriate. Our hospital has not had to turn away any patients seeking emergency care.
We want to reassure our community that our staff is working hard to provide quality healthcare to all patients. We appreciate the opportunity to clarify this issue and as always, we value our community’s support.
After the hospital issued the rebuking statement, Rolling Stone was forced to correct their story, but critics found the move dissatisfying. “Rolling Stone casually drops in an update to their article which is the statement from NHS that effectively boils down to “Everything you’re going to read below is based off an unsubstantiated report from a guy that doesn’t work with us and is lying to everyone reading this.”,” one user tweeted regarding the sham story.
Rolling Stone ran a story that they could've debunked with a single phone call.
They didn't make that phone call because they wanted it to be true and because it went viral and got clicks.
And they'll keep doing it because no one will hold them accountable. pic.twitter.com/Kzl9ksfLEp
— Josh Jordan (@NumbersMuncher) September 5, 2021
Experts caught USA Today running a false “fact check” just two days ago. The supposed fact check was about claims that Joe Biden kept checking his watch during the dignified transfer ceremony honoring US service members slain in Kabul. Then, they issued a correction admitting that “Biden checked his watch multiple times at the dignified transfer event, including during the ceremony itself.”